


Drs Geiszler and Gottlieb Vs. Romance

by twinpeaksrocktoss



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: I love them both, M/M, Nerds in Love, origami nerds, romantic competition, slight mention of stress eating
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-19
Updated: 2018-04-19
Packaged: 2019-04-25 04:22:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,453
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14370816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twinpeaksrocktoss/pseuds/twinpeaksrocktoss
Summary: Prompt: The escalating war of who's better at romance reaching a point where the lab is full of flowersSo Hermann thinks he's the most romantic one in the relationship, Newt is determined to prove him wrongThe real answer is that they'd both useless nerds, but hey, we'll let them have their fun





	Drs Geiszler and Gottlieb Vs. Romance

“Special delivery!” Tendo kicked the lab door open, arms so full of stuff Newt couldn’t see his face. 

“Sup buddy!” Newt popped up from where he’d been untangling cables, knees threatening to never let him walk or stand again after spending too long in an ambitiously deep squat. “Whatcha got there?”

“Alison sent me a care package but I can’t use half this shit,” he dumped the basket of partially unwrapped goodies and tissue paper onto a nearby dissection table and leaned to crack his back. “She sent me so much fancy bath shit; didn’t have the heart to tell her I’ve got sensitive skin,”

“Dude, bad move, she’s gonna send you more if you don’t get out of this hole now,” Newt slapped his shoulder and dived straight for the packages that were definitely bath bombs. 

“Well, if she does, I’ll just have to donate them to my number one best friend,” Tendo held his fist out to Newt, but his hands were busy attacking the tissue paper standing between him and a bar of Kaiju shaped soap, so Tendo just bumped his fist into Newt’s shoulder. 

“Weirdo,” Newt snorted. “What do you want?”

“Always so suspicious, Geiszler,” Tendo tried to look offended, or maybe he was going for sad, but he just looked a bit constipated. 

“Dude you have one tactic to get what you want and it’s always, without fail, the best friend card,” Newt popped the cap of some bright pink shampoo and stuck it right into his nostril to have a good old sniff. Verdict? It smelt good enough to eat. 

“Not always,” Tendo waggled his eyebrows. “You underestimate the persuasive powers of my sexual favours,”

Newt, two shower jel bottles rammed up his nose _(that shit just smelt so good)_ , gave him the most unimpressed stare. It would have made _Hermann_ proud. 

“Alright, alright - I need you to cook for me,” Tendo pressed his palms together like he was praying and Newt half expected him to fall to his knees. “Everyone in the ‘Dome knows that you make, hands down, the best, weirdly good food, and things with Alison are getting serious so I thought-“

“You’d bribe me with cool soaps?” Newt cradled the little blue Kaiju soap, as if protecting it from Tendo’s manipulative ways. “I bet Alison didn’t even buy you this shit,”

“She did! Honestly, she’s a real romantic like that. But Newt, please please please-“

“Dude chill it’s fine, I’ll whip ya up something neat for your hot date,” Newt grinned at Tendo, wondering where Alison got the tissue paper because that shit was the brightest coloured stuff Newt had seen in ages - at the ‘Dome, gifts were wrapped in requisitions forms or not at all; due to rationing and just how busy everyone was, birthday presents were sentimental and mostly handmade so that kinda made up for having to tear through layers of bureaucratic wrapping paper, in Newt’s opinion. 

“Thanks buddy, thanks a billion,” Tendo launched himself at Newt, partially crushing a super rad _Yamarashi_ shaped bath bomb between them. 

“But you owe me one, dude,” Newt slapped him on the shoulder, managing to disguise brushing off the powdered bath bomb from his hands as a friendly gesture. Turns out _Yamarashi_ was filled with bright blue glitter... what a waste. 

“Obviously! Anything, my man, anything at all consider it done - you’re a life saver, Newton Geiszler!” Tendo did a weird moonwalk-slide away from the work bench, firing off duel finger guns, which ( _obviously_ ) Newt enthusiastically returned. 

“I’ll hold you to that dude,” he boosted himself up onto the table, swinging his legs, hauling the basket into his lap for further investigation. “This pile of goodies is, like, your deposit before the big payoff,”

“Whatever you say, little man!” Tendo called back, skipping out of the lab back to wherever he went when he wasn’t either bossing anxious LOCCENT techs around or dispensing breath-taking gossip in the canteen. 

Newt was expecting a menu to be transferred to his comm.link any minute filled with Tendo Choi’s personal requests, which was definitely going to be as extra as possible but Newt didn’t mind; he enjoyed cooking, especially cooking for other people who he knew appreciated his special skill. It was nice to get out of the lab sometimes, not that the K-Science division had much free time. 

Just as anticipated, a PDF file announced its arrival with a series of vibrations from Newt’s wrist comm.link. He didn’t have time to read it, however, thanks to the obnoxious beeping coming from an autoclave which clearly felt like it’d been neglected for too long. 

The super cool bath related paraphernalia and Tendo’s romantic future would have to wait. 

**

“Newton, what on _Earth_ are you doing?” Hermann asked, taking off his humongous parka coat like a snake shedding its skin. 

When Newt tried to respond, he accidentally spat chocolate out and didn’t even manage to say any proper words, just a slightly wet-mouthed humming sound. 

“Where did you get those?” Herms pointed with his cane at the half-dozen little chocolates which sat unwrapped in Newt’s palm - they weren’t gonna stay there for long. Ever since he’d dug them out of their tissue paper nest, he’d planned on shoving them in with the rest of their brethren and _chowing the fuck down_ because rationing was a _bitch_ and chocolate was hard to come by these days. 

Newt tried to speak again, but his mouth was hamster-full of pralines and caramels. 

“Were you never taught not to speak with your mouthful?” Hermann levelled him with a bored look of distaste, so Newt decided to chew the rest of his chocolates with his mouth open, chomping and smacking his lips in the most exaggerated way. 

Hermann just stared him down, unblinking even when Newt rolled his eyes back and gulped his mouthful. 

“Are you quite finished?” 

“Naw, I’ve got like twenty more of those I was just gonna-“

“ _Newton_ ,”

“Okay, okay,” Newt hopped down from the workbench and held out his hand to Hermann. “You want one?”

They were half melted from Newt’s sweaty palm. 

“No, thank you,” Hermann wrinkled his nose. 

“Goodie, more for me! Tendo brought them down,” Newt shoved a few into his mouth and clicked his fingers, pointing at the basket. “Gave me loads of cool shit,”

“Mr Choi?” Hermann came to stand next to him, peering into the basket. Newt nudged their shoulders together. 

“Yeah dude,” he held out his hand again, but this time a single heart shaped chocolate sat in the centre, wrapped in lilac foil. “Saved ya one,”

Hermann delicately took the sweet, stared at it for a moment before pocketing it. 

“Thank you,” 

Newt loved it when Hermann thanked him because he always, always meant it and that made Newt _feel things, man_. 

“Yeah, Tendo brought down all this shit,” he hid his blush by diving into the basket to fish out his favourite soap, shampoo and edible body butter to show Herm. 

“Any particular reason?” Hermann raised his eyebrows at the goodies, slipping on his glasses to inspect the label of Newt’s favourite shower gel. “This is awfully generous,”

“Alison sent it for him, but he has, like, allergies n shit, so he gave them to me- well, us really, cos like, he just delivered them to the lab, but then again, he did ask _me_ to cook for him and his-“

“Cook? You’re cooking?” Hermann snapped the shower gel lid closed after apparently not being too impressed by its sweet rosy smell. “You hardly get the time now,”

“Yeah man,” Newt beamed. “It’s a special occasion, plus, it’s all for true love and that’s a cause I’ll support until my death, baby,” 

“Baskets of presents, romantic meals...” Hermann hummed thoughtfully; Newt didn’t totally understand why Herms looked like his mind was miles away, when he should have been appreciating how rad the Kaiju shaped soaps were. 

“Jealous, Hermslice?” He wiggled his eyebrows, laughing when Herm’s cheekbones flushed pink. “I’m kidding, and obviously I’m gonna share these,”

Hermann chuckled lightly and stepped fractionally closer to Newt. They’d been aware of each other’s feelings ( _dating_ , technically) for two months and Hermann still hadn’t worked out how to either let Newt know he wanted to be kissed or just initiate one himself. Luckily, Dr Newton Geiszler was exceptionally gifted at practically reading his mind in that department. 

_(Okay, Newt just existed in a permanent state of wanting to kiss Hermann, so any slight indication that Herms might be up for it, he leapt at the chance...)_

They stood like that, kissing with hands in each other’s hair, Newt backed up against the work bench, another bath bomb vaporised on the table top, until the damn autoclave beeped like a screaming toddler being ignored by its parents. 

Newt huffed, not caring that his shirt was half off as he re-buttoned his jeans and Hermann awkwardly cleared his throat. Stupid science getting in the way of the potential for some quality workplace laboratory sex...

After the autoclave was pacified, Hermann had scurried over to his chalkboards, all promise of some sexy lab times as crushed as the sad looking green bath bomb which was probably all over the ass of Newt’s jeans. 

 

**

“Ho ho, good morning, it is a wonderful start to another glorious day working with my fav- Hermann?” Newt stopped the sing-song announcement of his arrival, standing completely still in front their Neutral Table, where he definitely, 100% left Tendo’s gift basket yesterday. 

Hermann stopped scratching his chalk across another equation and squinted at him from up his ladder. 

“Dude did you steal my tissue paper?” Newt’s arms slumped down by his sides, confusion clear on his face. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Hermann spluttered, face flushing - _fuck he was so guilty_. 

“Oh my god, you so did! You totally stole my super rad tissue paper! Why would you do that, man?” Newt shouted, voice rising with both pitch and volume as Hermann angrily descended from his ladder. “I bet you threw it away, didn’t you? Oh, sorry, was it a bit too colourful for you? Too cool? _Too fun?_ ”

“Newton, please you’re embarrassing yourself,” Hermann managed to keep his voice level and calm, even if his movements were jerky and very obviously annoyed. “I didn’t steal it, I folded it and put it away, you ridiculous man,” 

“Y-you fold- you _folded_ it?” Newt didn’t think either his voice or his eyebrows could get any higher, and yet...

“Yes, and if you had actually allowed me to explain the situation before shouting-“

“Hey, man,” Newt saw that all of Herm’s annoyance had slipped into quiet hurt, so he forced his embarrassed awkwardness aside and stepped towards him. “Sorry, Hermann, you’re right I shouldn’t have yelled... Old habits are a bitch,”

“And if you hadn’t just interrupted me,” Hermann smiled slightly, only turning up the very corners of his mouth. “You would have found out that I did indeed _steal_ one sheet of your apparently precious tissue paper,” 

Newt looked over to where Hermann was pointing and let out a little squeak. 

Stood stout and proud on top of a pile of carefully folded multi coloured tissue paper was a perfectly crafted origami model of _Trespasser_ , about the size of Newt’s hand. 

“Is- is that for me?” He sprinted over to it, gently scooping it up, carefully cradling the little Kaiju model. “Hermann,” 

“I know it isn’t entirely scientifically accurate, but-“

“Hermann, he’s perfect, you’re perfect,” Newt beamed and practically launched himself at Herm, both of them squeaking on impact. “Now I really feel like an asshole for yelling,”

“Yes, well, I thought what with seemingly everyone else expressing their... involvements recently,” Hermann rested his head against Newt’s, awkwardly returning the crushing hug. “Perhaps it would be fitting to do something... romantic,” 

“Yeah, Tendo and Alison are bad but the Kaidanovskies? The worst dude,” Newt nuzzled his face into Hermann’s neck, gripping his back with one hand, the other holding _Trespasser_ up over his shoulder. “They keep just, like, making out in the hangars,”

“I did think you wouldn’t be the most traditional romantic,” Hermann laughed, breath warm on Newt’s neck. 

“What’d’ya mean by that?” 

“Just that- it’s not a bad thing,” Hermann untangled himself from Newt’s hug and manoeuvred him by the upper arms to intensely hold eye contact. “Newton, I didn’t mean-“

“Dude I can be romantic,” Newt jabbed himself in the chest, slightly bending Trespasser’s tissue paper head. “We do a tonne of romantic shit!” 

“Newton, if you’re referring to your ‘super cool’ second date plan-“ Hermann rolled his eyes and folded his arms, a stance Newt was very, very familiar with. 

“Listen, Hermslice, everyone knows there is nothing more romantic than candle lit dinners and baths!” 

“Not at the _same time_ , Newton!” Hermann shouted, giving Newt a look which shouldn’t have been as funny as it was. 

“It makes sense, thought! More efficient, thought that would get you extra hot an-“

“It was hardly a candle lit dinner, a carton of apple juice and some soup from the canteen-“

“I didn’t have any shit to make anything nice!”

“We didn’t even have a bath, Newton! Showers and baths are not interchangeable!” Hermann was doing that thing he does with the corner of his mouth when he was trying to reign in his exasperation, Newt really wanted to shut him up with his own mouth, and he was definitely gonna, but then he had a thought. 

“Well, let me make it up to you, if my romancin’ isn’t good enough for you,” he booped Hermann with _Trespasser_ on the tip of his very pointy nose. He made a cute little surprised huff and _fuck_ Newt loved him so damn much. “I’m gonna romance the shit out you, Dr Gottlieb,”

“So you like the paper Kaiju?” Hermann twitched his nose and smiled. It crinkled his eyes slightly at the corners and showed just a little bit of teeth - Newt decided to answer his question as honestly as possible: by pulling him up against him by the tie and thoroughly expressing his gratitude, pinned against a workbench. 

Yeah, he’d show Hermann _just_ how _romantic_ Dr Newton Geiszler could be...

**

Okay, so apparently being romantic was harder than it looked. 

Tendo and Alison had just about claimed 80% of all romantic gestures and Newt was sure Herm would decidedly not appreciate anything close to the special Kaidanovsky brand of PDA, so Newt really had to go back to the drawing board with his plans for romance. 

Or rather, the chalk board. 

On Thursdays, Hermann meticulously recorded the week’s worth of chalky scribblings into huge ass dusty books, which meant on Fridays a large section of the wall of chalk boards was wiped clean. Friday also happened to be the day Hermann went over to the Mark Three restoration teams to check on progress and generally sort them out. 

So Newt was up bright and early that Friday, box of multi coloured chalk in hand, ready to spread his romance plans across the boards while Hermann was out working. 

Twenty minutes into what was supposed to be a high octane planning session, Newt was still faced with a blank board. Damnit, how did Hermann ever get anything done? It was like the board was mocking him with its smug spotlessness. 

Give him a random specimen and he could accurately name the specific Kaiju it belonged to 80% of the time; but ask him to sketch up a romantic plan to both figuratively and literally _blow_ Hermann away? Nothing, apparently. 

Newt slouched even further down in Hermann’s rickety wheely chair and picked at his painted nails - he bet Hermann was never intimidated by a stupid chalkboard... maybe he was right, maybe Newt just wasn’t a romantic kinda guy.

Newt took off his glasses and started absentmindedly cleaning them with his skinny tie. You know who definitely gave off traditional romantic vibes, he thought, Stacker ‘Sex God’ Pentecost himself. 

Ol’ Stacks wouldn’t be mindlessly staring into the middle distance, completely out of ideas. He’d be scrawling neat and efficient graphs and drawing up contingency plan after contingency plan... all while being super sexy and cool. 

Maybe it was that moustache, maybe that was the key to ultimate romance. 

_That’s it_ , Newt sprang up with sudden energy and leapt towards the chalkboard, he should grow a moustache!

And art was _peak_ romance, right? So Newt would draw the most romantic, most Hermann-friendly art physically possible.

Exactly on time, as always, Hermann tap-tap-clacked into the lab, just as Newt was finishing up his masterpiece. 

“N-no no! Hermslice, don’t look yet!”

“Newton, the laboratory rules have not been made obsolete simply due to our recent cohabitation,” Hermann tutted, but did turn away as Newt had asked. “And those are my boards,”

“Aaaaaaaand finished! Okay, sweet cheeks, you can look now,” Newt scurried over to him and spun him to face the chalkboards by his shoulders and hovered there, practically vibrating with anticipation. 

Hermann stared at the board taking in every multi-coloured line and curve which made up a, like, super accurate drawing of what was definitely him and Newt holding hands, surrounded by _seriously romantic_ maths symbols and rainbow love hearts. 

“D’ya like it?” Newt couldn’t take the mere seconds of suspense. 

“What is it?” Hermann tilted his head and squinted. “Is that me?”

“Duh, dude! I totally nailed your hair,” Newt shuffled them both closer. 

“And who- is that you?” 

“Awh c’mon man, you gotta be messing with me right now,” he dramatically threw his head back and snatched up a metre long ruler to use as a pointer. He smacked it hard against the board, “the tattoos, dude! It’s definitely me, and that’s you, and this is our sciencey, romantic as fuck love,” 

“Right,” Hermann was still frowning a little. “Why on earth do you have a _moustache_ in this drawing?”

“Uh, cos I would look _thirst-worthy_ with a tasche, Hermslice and you know it,” he winked, one hand shoved on his jutted out hip, the other holding the ruler across his shoulders. 

“Hhm, I’m not sure,” Hermann seemed to be giving it a lot of thought, and not the kind of sexy thoughts Newt was aiming for. 

“Dude, imagine it,” he slowly walked over to Herm, getting all up in his space. “Me, but with a moustache... a thick, beautiful ‘tasche, rocking that sexy bad guy look, giving off major Stacker vibes-“

“I’m not sure I like where this is going, Newton,” Hermann went to fold his arms, but Newt just pulled himself closer so Herm’s hands had no choice but to rest on his hips. 

“Just imagine, Hermslice,” he lightly bumped his forehead against Hermann’s, beaming at the very bright blush colouring his unfairly attractive cheekbones. “Me sexing you up all nasty but with a moustache, so it’s classy,”

“Newton, we both have work to do,” Hermann wet his lips slightly, driving Newt just a little bit wild. 

“Chill, dude, who’s gonna even come down here?” 

“Me, perhaps, Dr Geiszler,” a voice said smoothly, triggering every fight or flight instinct in Newt’s body. 

“ **FUCK**!” he shrieked, springing away from Hermann, staring at the one and only Stacker fucking Pentecost stood in the doorway to their lab, arms folded, face sterner than he’d ever seen him. 

“Progress report on the Mark Threes, Dr Gottlieb?” He raised an eyebrow at Hermann who looked just about ready to strap himself into a Jaeger and lunch himself into the sea and never come back. Which would be an _absolute actual tragedy_. 

“Yessir!” Hermann squeaked, not meeting the Marshall’s eyes. Newt stood strategically in front of his artistic masterpiece, but knowing Stacker, he’d already seen it, processed it and consequently banished it from his mind. 

“As I am sure you are both aware, these are working hours, gentlemen. But if you need more... free time, you will have to ask Herc to put in a request,” Stacker’s facial expression didn’t change one bit, but somehow he managed to look like smugness personified. Bastard. 

“We were just trying to be more romantic!” Newt was definitely aware of how high his voice had gone. 

“I see,” Stacker rocked up onto his toes, boosting his already scary height into inhumanly tall territory. “Well, if that’s the case-“

“Here you are, sir, everything I compiled on the Mark Threes today,” Hermann lunged between Newt and Stacker, holding out a sizeable wad of paper, managing to both salute the Marshall like the _adorable nerd_ he was, and elbow Newt in the stomach, like the _bitch_ he also was. 

“Thank you, Dr Gottlieb,” he nodded his head like he was giving Herm a little professional bow, but turned to Newt and actually, honest to fuck _smirked_ \- like one side of his mouth was mocking him while the other was just disappointed but not surprised. “Dr Geiszler,”

“Anything else, sir?” Hermann, face redder than Newt thought was biologically possible (and he was an _expert_ ), looked up at Stacker for a second before picking a spot of Kaiju Blue on the floor and staring at it. 

“No, no,” he smiled, clearly taking pity on Herm’s ( _super cute_ ) awkward mortification. “I’ve got what I came for, see you soon, gentlemen,”

“Thank you, sir!” Hermann called to Stacker’s retreating back just as Newt whistled and yelled, “laters, boss,”

They both stared at each other, Newt holding in his truly spectacular giggles for around half a minute, “fuck dude we got rumbled bad,”

“Yes, we did a little bit, didn’t we,” Hermann laughed, just gentle puffs of air escaping his smiling mouth. 

_Fuck_ , Newt shouldn’t already be thinking about Herm’s mouth only seconds after being caught by Marshall Pentecost... _and yet...._

“So, _trying to be more romantic_ , are we?” Hermann, facing his chalkboard, picked up the rubber, but decided to put it down and settle for scribbling some equations around Newt’s drawing. 

“Well, yanno,” Newt pivoted like some kind of ballerina, located his hazmat gloves and keyed in his code to the specimen fridge. “Obviously I don’t need to be more romantic cos I’m already plenty - I’m like romancing you every day of the week, sugar,” 

“Oh do some work, you ridiculous man,” Hermann grumbled fondly. 

Yeah, Newt thought, so maybe the beautiful artwork didn’t go down as well as planned, but his next plan would be _exquisite_. 

 

**

The next plan was a disaster. 

Newt had gone to the trouble of sneaking out of the Shatterdome, hunting down an address given to him by one of the least terrifying canteen staff and forking over an extortionate amount of cash for a luxury box of star shaped chocolates. They were beautiful, little hand crafted shapes all arranged into constellations inside a pretty gift box. 

Hermann would have loved them. 

Unfortunately, the closest the chocolates ever got to Herm was when he was carefully sliding the torn, empty box away from Newt as he cried and apologised. He’d tried to explain that he didn’t mean to stuff them all in his face, but some asshole down in physical had said some really hurtful things, and the urge to just eat his feelings became too strong. 

Hermann had simply held Newt, drawing delicate patterns on his back with his nails, humming gently to calm him down. That wasn’t his proudest moment, nor was is the romantic gesture he’d been planning, but it did reaffirm just how much he loved Hermann Gottlieb with everything he had. 

 

**

After the chocolates incident, Newt discovered that he wasn’t the only one in the relationship trying to prove that they were _the more romantic one_. 

Reading in bed had become a sort of ritual for them; every night (well, the ones they managed to tear themselves away from working overtime in the lab) the pair of them would sit shoulder to shoulder under the covers and peacefully read, occasionally sharing interesting snippets of information. 

One particular night, Newt was working on his All Kaiju Are Clones theory to present to Stacker when he got stuck on the wording of a particular observation. Like, really stuck. 

“What’s the matter, Newton?” Hermann huffed, putting down his tablet to peer over Newt’s shoulder. “You’ve been sighing and swearing under your breath for longer than usual,”

“Just some work shit,” Newt shifted himself back up from where he’d slouched so far against the headboard he was practically lying down. 

“Anything I can help you with?” Hermann edged closer, nose nearly bumping into Newt’s cheek. 

“Nah, dude it’s alright-“

“As your romantic partner, I consider it my duty to provide assistance when you’re in need,” he tilted Newt’s tablet screen towards him and squinted, scanning the section. “Besides, it doesn’t look that complicated,”

“Hey, this shit is super difficult, okay? It’ll come to me,” Newt probably shouldn’t have been so annoyed, but c’mon, biology was his thing, no way was he going to let a _mathematician_ help him, even if he was his damn boyfriend – even if Hermann was only trying to show that he cared. “Go back to reading about stars, or whatever,”

“Really, Newton, I’m only trying to help,” but Hermann did not go back to reading. In fact, he powered his tablet down and folded his arms petulantly. 

“Well you can’t because you’re not a biologist,” Newt winced at his own harshness - they’d had the whole _‘biology vs. every other scientific discipline’_ argument about a million times before, so Newt knew exactly how the conversation would end. 

“Well I’m sorry I decided to dedicate my life to an academic field actuall-“

“Oh go on Hermann, go on, tell me I wasted my potential, tell me how I’m never going to make a difference, tell me that I’m just a Kaiju groupie, tell me that I’ll never have the maturity to be taken seriously in the academic world, tell me that my chosen files of study isn’t valid or-“ Newt felt his breathing become erratic and shallow, so snapped his mouth shut to stop the anxious rant before it really got going. 

He mumbled an apology, swiping at his wet eyes behind his glasses, tipping them up into his messy hair. _Fuck, why did he always let it get to him so bad?_ Herm’s opinion meant the world to him, sure, but was that worth getting into such a state about?

Hermann’s cold hands pulled him out of his shaky thoughts, gently pulling him to rest his head against Herm’s shoulder, fingers sliding into his hair. He whispered soft German, mainly ‘sorry, darling’ over and over again, holding him close. 

Newt calmed down, focussing on Hermann’s voice and blaming his little freak out on sleep deprivation - his tablet slipped off over the edge of the bed as he adjusted himself to snuggle into Herm properly, brushing his lips against his collarbone as a silent thank you. 

That little attempt of Hermann’s to do some kind of ‘romantic gesture’ hadn’t gone smoothly to say the least, but it was nowhere near as bad the strange series of events which followed. 

It got to the point where Mako shyly knocked on the lab door, and politely asked if everything was alright with them. Apparently, the rest of the ‘Dome was worried that neither of them were sleeping properly because that was the only logical explanation for their _‘sudden... odd behaviour’._

Yeah, Newt admittedly was to blame for the planned romantic walk which ended with Hermann getting a horrific cold because rain is _homophobic_ , but Hermann’s own plot to cook them a nice candle lit dinner set off three alarms and saw them both shoved into the decontamination showers. Newt still wasn’t entirely sure how things got that bad, but neither of them discussed it ever again, so he guessed it would remain a mystery for life - unless of course they managed to read each other’s minds, or something like that. 

The icing on the awkward, decidedly un-romantic cake was when Stacker got involved.

It started with Newt buying a potted hydrangea, affectionately named ‘ _Audrey II_ ’ and ended with a stern talk from Stacker, moustache as angry as the rest of his face, about misusing the PPDC’s requisitions team to procure a _‘wildly unprofessional amount of botanical goods’_...

Newt didn’t have the balls to tell him that neither he nor Hermslice had even asked the requisitions team, they just nipped off during _work hours_ down into town and spent their meagre salaries at the now basically sold out little florists. 

Nah, no way Newt was saying anything that might risk compromising his very, very precarious composure – it was so hard to take the Marshall’s harsh words when he was surrounded by a rainbow of different flowers and waxy leaved indoor trees.

After he’d left, both Newt and Hermann had laughed so hard they nearly passed out.

“Awh, man,” Newt spun around, arms wildly gesturing at the little jungle they’d both managed to create between them, spluttering as a bamboo leaf nearly went into his mouth. “Only us, dude, only we would have the same damn idea and then take it _waaaaaay_ too far,”

“Quite,” Hermann chuckled, playing with a dragon tree’s leaves between his fingers. “It does seem as if this is a first for the PPDC’s HR department,”

“How much _money did we spend_? And what the fuck are we gonna do with all these _plants_ , dude?” 

“Well, perhaps we could distribute them amongst our friends and colleagues?” he smiled and it reached every inch of his beautiful face- Newt wasn’t even ashamed of his sappy thoughts as he closed the distance between them and smacked a theatrically loud kiss on that smile.

“That’s the best idea we’ve come up with between us in ages,” Newt beamed, holding onto Herm’s shoulders for a few tender seconds before bouncing away to collect up as many potted plants as he could carry. “C’mon Hermslice, I know exactly which one is gonna go to who,”

“The blue ones for Mako,” Hermann nodded in agreement, moving to the supply cupboard and shakily pulling out the equipment trolley which was heavy enough when empty, no wonder Herm was struggling, but naturally it was a much more practical idea than Newt’s arms-full-of-plants approach. 

“And the cacti for Chuck, cos he’s a prick,” Newt dumped some of the larger plants into the trolley and popped a pink carnation behind Hermann’s ear. 

“ _Newton_ ,” Herm blushed prettily when Newt’s fingers slowed down and stroked along the shell of his ear.

“I think I won,” Newt rocked up onto his toes and gently kissed the tip of his nose. 

“Won what?” Hermann was an exquisitely bad liar, so he went even redder and looked everywhere but Newt’s eyes – it was adorable.

“You know exactly what, you sneaky slice of nerd ass,” he was acutely aware of his autoclave beeping somewhere behind a wall of decorative ferns, but didn’t let it distract him. “Who’s the most romantic,”

“Obviously it was _never_ a competition-“

“Oh, yeah, of course-“

“Why would it be,” Hermann huffed, accidentally bumping his nose into Newt’s. “We just mutually felt like expressing ou-“

“But I won,” Newt pecked him on the lips, leaning back to pull something out of his pocket.

“We both provided an equally ridiculous number of flowers, both had our fair share of disasters so I don’t see- oh,”

“It’s for you,” Newt balanced the little origami _Coyote Tango_ model in the centre of his palm. It was the same bright blue as the Trespasser Hermann had made for him from the gift basket tissue paper.

“How did you-“

“I got the instructions from a cereal box,” Newt picked the small Jaeger up and placed it gently into Hermann’s cupped hands.

He just stared at it, eyes very wide and very shiny and- _oh, holy balls, Hermann was actually tearing up_ , cradling a shitty origami Jaeger with a pink flower behind his ear. Newt wished he could take a photo to preserve this moment for life.

“I love it, thank you,” he gave Newt a watery smile – there he went again, sincerely thanking Newt for things, making his heart go all fluttery.

“We could do battles,” to hide his soppy blush, Newt grinned and popped a blue flower behind his own ear, so he and Herms were matching. “But first, let’s go make some people’s days with our shocking botanical generosity,”

“I love you, you ridiculous, romantic man,” Hermann shook his head, silly, wide, beaming smile really offsetting the rest of his grumpy old man look.

“I love you more, you massive nerd, now let’s go! Days to make, flowers to deliver! Oooh, which ones should we give Tendo?”

“Doesn’t he have rather extreme allergies?”

“Yup!”


End file.
